MASSACRE GUN

Yasuharu Hasebe,
Japan,
1967, Arrow Films

“This film has everything one would want from a Japanese gangster film and then some. Besides fighting for territory, both sides show off their sadistic side as they are willing to go the extra mile to prove their point.” -- Michael Den Boer, 10K Bullets

Genre icon Jô Shishido stars in this tense and violent yakuza yarn from and Seijun Suzuki’s former assistant Yasuharu Hasebe, who directed several of the STRAY CAT ROCK films. Strikingly violent for the period, and gorgeously photographed in B&W monochrome like genre siblings BRANDED TO KILL and A COLT IS MY PASSPORT, MASSACRE GUN is a bold iteration on the genre featuring some stunning compositions and the assured direction of Hasebe.

Shishido plays a mob hitman who turns on his employers after being forced to execute his lover. Joining forces with his similarly wronged brothers -- hot-headed Eiji (Tatsuya Fuji, IN THE REALM OF THE SENSES) and aspiring boxer Saburô (Jirô Okazaki, STRAY CAT ROCK: SEX HUNTER), the trio escalate their mob retaliation to all-out turf war where no one will stop until one faction emerges victorious.